Page 2 of 2

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:56 pm
by joesgotone
Agree with sitting at a ramp to see the entertainment. Seen so many good and bad methods. Pulled a car out of buff creek at midnight, because the rock slipped out as the handbrake didn't work. Seen guys make it look easy. I do a 5.5m and keep my shoes dry by myself almost weekly. Seen guys wet to the armpits when there are 4 of them. 1 last point. Maintain your trailer and rollers. Makes launch and recovery so much easier.

Remember when i gets rough you can always fish near the boat ramp. Plenty of fish are caught from shore near boat ramps.

Did my time in a 11 ft with a 15hp and covered alot of country. Some scary days but always picked a speed or direction to get home safe. Spent 3 hrs trying to pull start the motor when it got swamped and shorted out in torres strait. Took 3 hrs to dry and start. Took weeks to find the fault.

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:40 pm
by bucky007
Would Shady Camp be off limits for a 3.7m tinny?

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:39 pm
by jeffish
Not a good idea bucky . The crocs are plenty big out that way and there is more in that system than anywhere else , I wouldn't .

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 6:45 pm
by slug
Back in the day you would rarely see anything but 12 footers - come to think of it, back in the day you would hardly see any boats at all .....

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 8:35 pm
by Richieboy
I run a 4.35 Hornet and have done for the past 10 years up here. Ive hit the coastal creeks in Chambers in both directions, travelled to the mouth of the East and back with all the spares etc.
I only nearly died one night when the weather came up and I was banging fish at the mouth of Marsh around 8pm.Probably the longest and most harrowing run Ive had in the tinny trying to get back over and into the mouth of Tommycut.
It shook me up pretty bad as it was pitch black, I was solo and taking on water in buckets. At one stage I had to run the water out as I pushed back into the mouth of Tommy (spring tide) nearly upending the boat as I couldn't see the bank. Made it around the bend, dried myself out and fell asleep.....it was like a 3 hr run back. I bailed the next day back to Sampan and hiked it.
Ive seen some pretty gnarly weather crossing the harbour, surfing home from Shoal Bay and running back from Tapa.
My advice is stick to the harbour for now, learn the limitations of your skills and your boat. Don't fish the big rivers or billabongs at night and in general........tell someone where youre going all the time.
Do what you're doing now, ask questions, observe the weather patterns.
As for locations.......Matt Flynn is on the money. The Eastern side of the harbour, (creeks mentioned) is a goldmine and Ive banged fish up to 85cm on that flat at Sadgroves.
Hope you penetrate a few fish.

richie

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:46 pm
by STANDY
bucky007 wrote:Would Shady Camp be off limits for a 3.7m tinny?
Electric motored over a 4.5 croc at the second barrages at Shady with the misses in a 3.75 edge tracker with a 15 yammy on the back.
Had a 4.55 sea jay 50hp 4Stroke with high gunnels within 2 weeks misses never blinked a eye as I pulled the 12k out of the bank :D

Did do a lot in the 3.75 before hand like Shady mouth, all the way to the Prawn farm on the Roper countless Shoal bay trips.

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:59 pm
by dannett
The other thing with Shady and small boats is that there are a lot of big boats there. Big boats in big run off currents and big tides equal big wakes. Wakes are much less forgiving than waves even front on. And there is going to be a lot of big boats there.

I wouldn't say it's off limits, in fact if you went the fresh side would be the go and open a lot of options that will probably produce a heap of fish (just don't go over the barrages). But there will still be big crocs. With inexperience downstream is a gamble.

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:28 am
by theodosius
Lots of great advice here, applicable to larger boats too

Re: First tinny, advice please.

Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2018 9:17 am
by bucky007
Cheers guys, very helpful